A truly hilarious plot twist, Jake Paul is hawking a venture capital fund to invest in WME and change fighter pay from within. For those unaware, even if we were to assume good intentions, this plan would never work since WME's owners have about 80 percent of the voting shares. Yet another truly in mma moment.
Per the press release:
Jake Paul, our partners, and I are excited to announce our latest (Anti Fund Investment Fund) investment — Endeavor (NYSE: EDR), the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship — and our goals for the business as impact investors & venture capitalists.
My partner Jake has lead the way in changing the business of combat sports by not just talking about it, but being about it — fighter pay, healthcare, & championing women’s sport. And today is our next step in our vision of revolutionizing the industry.
UFC has faced a rising chorus of criticism for the exploitation of its athletes — the (heart) of biz. The ratio of revenue going to athletes vs. owners & leagues is well below industry standard. This disparity hurts long-term shareholder value & this is not going to magically change.
Jake is the archetype of the future, where individual transcends the machine. This is happening across all sectors — media, entertainment, & tech start ups where dynamic, innovative individuals & creators are bargaining toe-to-toe w the owners, the institutions, and the academy.
We believe the best way to accelerate this inevitable revolution is to lead it from within the UFC as co-owners & impact investors. We will use our investment stake to rally fans, athletes, fellow shareholders, and management to do the right thing.
Who am I? I come from Silicon Valley & web3/crypto. Skin in the game, shared equity, and long-term alignment is the underlying incentive model that made Silicon Valley and crypto the most impactful business models of the last 20 years. We intend to apply these models to the UFC.
I invite likeminded shareholders, our Board, our largest institutional to the smallest individual owners of EDR / UFC to join Jake, Anti Fund, and I to drive management change to upgrade sport culture, whilst capturing outsized long-term equity value.
It’s not just the right thing to do, but the profitable one.